


Afterimage

by Soobiebear



Category: Rush (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 12:17:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20309368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soobiebear/pseuds/Soobiebear
Summary: Written as a gift for The_Elder, as part of 2017's A Very Kinky Rockfic Ficmas Fest. The prompt was 'Geddy Lee,Alex Lifeson (Rush): Geddy goes up to the ruins of Le Studio and reminisces on his relationship with Alex .'Crossover with Dan Bell @ThisisDanBell Check him out on YouTube; he has a series on Dead Malls, Abandoned Places, and Another Dirty Room and they're all awesome.  (Btw I am not affiliated with Dan Bell.)





	Afterimage

“Hey everyone. This is Dan Bell, and today we’ve gone up north into Canada for a little road trip. With me is Will.” Dan moves his camera to Will who waves and squints in the late day sun.

“Hi,” Will says in his adorable awkwardness.

“And we also have Geddy, who invited us up today.” Dan moves the camera around for a quick view of Geddy, with dark glasses and hair pulled back into a neat and controlled ponytail. He waves for the camera, also squinting. 

“Hi,” Geddy smiles, more familiar with being taped than Will. “Thanks for making the drive.”

“No problem, thanks for contacting me. I think this is the first foreign shoot we’ve had.” Dan moves the camera back to the abandoned property and they start to walk towards the main building. “So today we’re in Quebec,”

“Morin-Heights,” Geddy adds.

“Just outside of Montreal. And we are going to be looking at what was once Le Studio, a recording studio that had its heyday in the eighties and was abandoned in the late 2000’s.” The tall grass crunches under Dan’s feet as the trio make the way up the slight slope of the Laurentian foothills. They come to the disintegrating wooden steps leading up to the building and Dan focuses on the decayed wood and overgrown weeds springing up from the carefully laid timbers. 

Geddy was the first to venture up the familiar steps, Dan choosing to change the view to the building’s exterior as he followed Geddy. The wooden siding was intact but weatherbeaten. Plywood covered what was once expansive windows that filled the studio with natural light and a sense of the forest surrounding it. Graffiti was strewn from one end of the building to the other, but it was pretty simple compared to what Dan usually saw. The cold Canadian winters kept all but the most local or determined away.

“So what can you tell us about Le Studio before it closed down?” Dan filmed Geddy looking at the ruinous remains of the studio, knee deep in weeds and looking rather depressed.

“It was the place to be back in the day,” he mused. “We did seven or eight albums here, you’d have to ask Neil. Spent a lot of time here back in the day.”

“What made it so special?” Dan was interested in the story of the places he filmed, not just making clips of ruin and disaster for random YouTube freaks. It was one of the selling points for coming up through the border; the fact he would have a guide who could shed more insight onto the previous life of the abandoned building.

“It was just a great place to record. It was residential, so you actually lived here while you worked. We didn’t have a problem but it was great for other bands that needed to be away from distractions to focus on the recording and writing.” Geddy’s eyes traced the still straight roofline, walking carefully as he stepped off the path onto more uneven ground. “They had some great equipment, big old SSL desk and Hewey and Dewey,” he paused with a smile at the memory. “Two 24-tracks Studers hooked together so you could get 48 tracks before they came out with digital.” He reached out and touched the old wooden sheathing, wiping his hands on his pants after realizing the whole side of the building was covered in a fine layer of damp moss. “Plus it was close to Neil’s house.” He paused and smiled. “The live room sounded awesome, especially when I was running through an amp and recording from a bass cab.”

Dan paused in front of what looked like a large round window, which was only partially boarded up, getting in different angles with his camera. “What was this? This is an interesting shape.”

Geddy kicked a tall weed out of the way. “Used to be a stained glass of a keyboard. Very early ‘80’s type of s-shaped thing.” He peeked behind the board. “Looks like its long gone.”

Dan tried to get the camera around the edge of the board, the lens peering into darkness. “Oh yeah, stained glass never lasts long. Probably either kicked out or used as target practice.”

“Alex always used to threaten to slap shot through it when he was drinking.” There was more the threatened to do, but you didn't mention those things in polite conversation.

Dan was a little bit more world weary hailing from Baltimore. “Maybe gunshot.” He examined the surrounding wood, not impressed at the lack of bullet holes. “Let’s head this way,” he pointed to the right. “Can you tell me what was back here?”

“So this was called the Far Side,” Geddy worked his way through the brush. “Offices, a smaller studio, storage, not usually where we spent time.”

“This is farther away from the driveway, wouldn’t that have been better for recording?” Will was photographing occasionally, staying a few paces behind the camera.

“Didn’t matter really,” Geddy shrugged. “Not much traffic out this way. It was added on later anyway, mid-80’s I think.”

“Is that some sort of greenhouse or glass ceiling?” Dan caught a glimpse of the boarded up roof section, the sudden angle jutting up from the rest of the roof. 

“Glass ceiling over what used to be part of that studio.” Geddy flushed a bit and scratched at the side of his nose, remembering a few times Alex had taken to 'getting his Vitamin D' as he had put it. Geddy stepped back a bit to look at the boards on the roof. “Surprised that’s still there.”

“Does seem like one downed branch and it would fall right in.” Dan peered in through another window. “Looks like someone is trying to do some work.” He worked with the camera again. “The walls are down to studs, but this room is cleaned out.”

“This used to be a lounge type area.” Geddy jockeyed for position and looked at the emptiness. “There was a coffeemaker and usually a small beer fridge, couple of couches and chairs. It was a good place to just relax when you weren’t in the live room or control booth.”

Dan continued walking but Geddy hung back. “It gets pretty steep over there. There’s a deck out back, or there used to be, but it’s probably not best to climb anymore.”

“How about the other way, is that more walkable?”

“Is there a way into here?” Will pulled at a sheet of plywood, finding it firmly stuck to the wall.

“There’s another door in the big room.” The trio headed back across the property, Geddy paused in front of three large sections of plywood. “This was the main live room, probably what most people remember from the videos.” There was no way to see inside, the plywood covered what used to be glass. “Neil would set up his drums here, with this back to the windows.” He motioned with his hands, using one hand for the drum kit and the other for the windows. “And if you turn around…” He waited for Dan to turn slowly, so the video wouldn’t make people nauseous. “The million dollar romantic view.”

“Oh wow,” Will commented, lining up another photo with his still camera. It was green now, the short Canadian summer in full bloom. All the greenery made for a lush scene, but it was just as beautiful in winter, when the lake froze over and everything was covered in a thick white coat.

“The lake goes back this way,” Geddy pointed along the building. “If the deck is still there it’s a great view.”

“It’s so quiet out here. Usually we’re somewhere urban and there’s always car noises and police sirens or even in the Dead Malls there’s an ambient drone but this is…” he paused, looking for the words.

“This sounds like Leakin Park.”

“Yeah,” Dan agreed, looking around.

Will’s already round eyes opened a bit more at making the connection. “Like where they found that girl.”

“Hae Min Lee,” Dan nodded, “But way less creepier. This feels like a peaceful quiet.”

“Is that in Baltimore?” Geddy waited while Will got a few more shots in.

“Yeah, I did a few shows on it. Surprised you haven’t watched them.”

Dan moved the camera around to film Geddy again. “I like the dead malls and inner city stuff. I can get all the nature time I want right outside my door.”

“This is a major difference from Baltimore.” Dan laughed to himself, chuckling over the words. “How long would you stay here to make an album?”

Geddy smiled as Dan tried to get his video back on track. “A month, a few months. Depends on how things went. I think the Bee Gees stayed here for five months once.”

“Five months to make a Bee Gees album?” Dan’s eyebrow raised in disbelief, Will’s jaw was hanging open. 

Geddy only shrugged. “Harmonies are hard.” Good thing he never really had to worry about that aside from Alex singing a bit with him.

“Well, you want to try to get around the back? See how that’s holding up away from the driveway?”

“Sure.” They followed Geddy, who wasn’t sure of his footing on the steeper embankment, but at least had an idea of where he was going.

“So who else has recorded here?” Dan tried to fill the walking time with some interesting information as he filmed the building. 

“Us, obviously. David Bowie, the Bee Gees, Nazareth, The Police. Kim Mitchell.” Geddy liked getting Kim’s name out there as much as he could, even if he or Max Webster never made it very far out of Ontario. “Celine Dion. All the best of Canada,” he added with heavy irony.

“A lot of history, then.”

“Yeah, that’s why it’s so sad to see it like this.” Geddy had his own memories attached to the place while he was living here. Little bits of memories drifted through his mind as he walked, remembering how the grounds used to be kept and when the building was in good repair.

“What’s that?” Will pointed to an area of blue hiding in the green and tan weeds. It was a good fifty feet in front of them and down one of the gullies that filled the area.

“Is that a couch?”

Geddy shielded his eyes from the sun and squinted. What color had the couch in the lounge been? Blue? Green? Maybe that was it. “That might be the sofa from the lounge room.” He tried to get a little closer and keep his footing. He tried to remember, maybe it had been turquoise? It wasn’t fair. They’d fucked on that couch and Geddy remembered now that it was an 80’s teal color under that rot and moss and dirty leaves. It looked better under Alex's hair.

“Yeah, that’s a couch and looks like two armchairs.” Dan filmed the debris, thrown down in the pit and left for trash. “You know that’s the only real garbage I’ve seen up here.”

“It’s Quebec,” he wanted to add smugly that we don’t just throw our trash on the ground like Americans, but bit his tongue. Geddy spotted where the sliding door into the live room used to be, or where he remembered it to be. More plywood covered up the door. “This is where we would bring all the equipment in.” He pointed to the non-existent door. “Used to be a big slider that blended in with the other windows.”

Dan pulled at the board. “Not getting in there.”

“Last time Neil was here he said this door was open.” At least someone was trying to take care of some of the building. “One more option, but it’s down and over a ways.” The slope down was muddier than the rest of the yard, there was never a path back here and it wasn’t generally used. It led Geddy closer to the trashed sofa. The arm didn’t look as comfortable as it had once been when he was balanced over the edge with his ass in the air. He used a small sapling on his slide down the hill before he had to step onto the concrete platform that still stood before the access door. Dan slid behind him but managed to stay on his feet for a big guy. Will wasn’t so lucky and ended up with a butt full of mud.

“Uugh, yuck.” There was something about Will that gave one the impression it wasn’t the first time he’d had an on camera problem. “Gross, this is worse than the bat shit.”

There was no planking over this door, far out of sight from the casual drive by and more removed than most were willing to explore. Geddy climbed up the concrete platform and gave the door a gentle push, watching as it creaked but swung open. “Bingo.” This was Dan’s bread and butter, and here is where it would get interesting.

It was dark inside and Geddy let Dan set up his shot and direct things. He was just here as a guide and for his own kicks; it was really Dan’s video. Dan waived him in and Geddy pushed the door further open, stepping into the darkness. He waited off to the side while he glasses changed back to clear, letting Dan and Will in to film the relatively untouched scene. The room was mostly empty. Geddy had no idea what it was ever used for, never bothering to explore the bowels of the studio while he was here. Will turned on his light and the cavernous space lit up. The rafters held firm but spiderweb covered, the walls were straight and the floor was empty save a rake and snowshovel and a few other landscaping parts. 

“So this is the basement of Le Studio,” Dan narrated. “Not much here, no graffiti or garbage. Looks pretty good for being abandoned.”

“It’s only really been abandoned about ten years or so.” Geddy felt bad calling the place abandoned. It brought forth images of collapsing buildings and complete neglect. This place was just less used than it had been in the past.

“Whoever left it looks like they cleaned up before they moved out. Not much to see.” Dan filmed some corners of the basement, finding some dripping water coming down the wall and a bird’s nest in a corner. “Is there a way upstairs from here?”

Will found some rough stairs at the far side, their treads still holding strong and looking stable. Dan was the first to start on his way up, shouldering through a door at the top and entering a more light filled room. He filmed around as Will and Geddy climbed the stairs, rising into a mostly empty room. Like downstairs, this was more tidy than trashed, although some graffiti did mar what was left of the walls.

“Looks like someone tried to start remodeling.” The sheetrock was gone, leaving studs and wires and pipes exposed. The floor was bare, but rough, with occasional holes at even intervals. Geddy stepped close to a cut in the floor and looked down into darkness. “Heating vents, I think.” Dan kicked at some dust with his foot, sending a small clatter of debris into the hole. 

“This was an office.” Silver insulation hung from the ceiling, ready to keep back the cold Canadian winter. He peeked out into the hallway, vaguely remembering the floorplan and started heading over to where the main live room used to be. The corridor ended in a trio of doors – Geddy remembered only the lounge would lead into the live room and headed straight, but Dan wanted to stop in the game room.

It was bigger than he remembered. The walls had the same stripped look, only bits of broken down drywall sat in disorganized piles around the room. The pool table was still mostly intact but he didn’t lift the tar paper covering it to make sure. Graffiti covered the front wall, drywall and wallpaper still intact. It reeked of either inbreeding or Grade Three education. Fred, Mart, Pat, and Deb had been here at one point, and were sorely lacking in any artistic talent. More silver insulation hung from the ceiling, to high to be bothered tampering with. 

“Play any pool here?” Dan asked, camera on Geddy again. He nodded and tried to keep the blush down. While technically true, he had played pool here, better memories came to mind, especially the one with a naked Alex rolling on the felt and singing ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ in his fake Marilyn Monroe voice. He cleared his throat and let the memory slip away with a pang of sadness; the place was right but the time was wrong.

Dan filmed around the room while Will took photos, leaving Geddy to pace and remember. He looked at the walls and out the broken windows, too many memories filling the empty space before wandering ahead into the next room. He avoided the toilet and went with his original course into the lounge. It was by far the worst of the rooms. Open to the driveway and exposed to the elements as soon as the windows were broken it wasn’t fairing as well as the rest of the building. The floor was still solid, but broken glass fanned out around the window holes and the weather started to make its mark on the interior. Even the plywood covering the windows was already looking worn, discolored and curling up at the bottom from rain and moisture. 

“I’ve heard there’s a guy trying to build this place back up.” Dan had wandered in to the lounge as well, probably getting a moody shot of Geddy forlornly staring out the front windows.

“I’d love to see it, but it won’t work. Not with the way the industry is now.” They all felt it, no longer going to the big studios and dropping $300 an hour to record, instead working on things in the home studios on ProTools and only renting a room here and there a day at a time if it was something they couldn’t get on their own. It was too complicated and boring to explain to a lay person. 

Moving out of Dan’s frame, Geddy mused. “It’s good you’re getting this on tape before it falls down.”

“What do you think is going to happen? Obviously, someone still loves it, even if it won’t work as a studio anymore.” Dan pulled back again and shot Geddy. All the screentime was getting annoying.

“Probably fall down or rot away. I’d love to see it become a resort or B&B. There’s a cottage across the lake where we lived, and you can canoe across every morning to come to work. It’s great for someone wanting to get away from Montreal or even Ottawa, maybe seasonal.” He shrugged again, looking around at the devastation. “Scrappers will probably come in and finish stripping it, a tree will fall on it or hail will kill the roof. Then it’s only a matter of time.” It wasn’t really secured well, if he and the guys could get in with all their cameras and gear... The only thing keeping it mildly protected was its location out in the country and laziness of criminals.

“Does the lake come up at all? Would it flood?”

“Nah,” Geddy shook his head. “I’d more worry about lightning or lighting hitting a tree and knocking it over.”

“It’ll be a sad day in Canadian history if this place ever does go.” Dan opened the door to the control room and propped it open with a piece of lumber that was laying by the door. “What was in here?”

Geddy looked around sadly at the broken glass and empty mixing desk. He’d spent so many hours in here and to see it completely barren hurt. The cigarette butts and empty beer cans did little to improve the ambiance. “Used to be the control room, where the big desk was and all the equipment.” He ran his finger over the counter where the BRC used to sit, a fine layer of dust covering everything. “Board’s gone, all the gear is gone, hopefully someone sold it instead of trashing it.” He wondered if shards of the thick glass that used to fill the wall still had Alex’s lip prints on it.

He pointed out where things used to be for Dan’s video and to distract himself. “Over there was the vocal booth, and that one was just another little isolation booth. That was the microphone cabinet.” The cabinet itself was gone, torn from the wall and disappeared, leaving only a blank space and a sudden line where paint stopped as a reminder of what used to live here. Glass crunched as Will walked around. “Not sure how they managed to do this, it was really thick.” Geddy dropped the shard of glass he’d picked up. That didn’t break on its own, someone purposely broken it.

“So this is where the producer would sit while you played?” Dan still filmed, obviously going to do some heavy editing later. 

“Yeah, more or less. Anyone playing would be out there, the rest of us would be in here listening through the monitors.” Which were also gone, Geddy did a quick check of the walls and ceilings, all the large handing speakers gone from their build outs. Not even the wires remained. “Alex would sit in here with this head and we’d run the cables out to his amp sometimes when that was the thing to do.” Mentioning Alex and head in the same sentence had been a bad idea. Geddy could still see the blinding grin emerging from the darkness under the board after one of Alex’s impromptu romps. No wonder why it would take months to do an album.

Dan and Will filmed and photographed away. The wooden wall was still intact, but the Le Studio logo was gone. The Eraserhead poster Geddy managed to tack high up on the wall while he tracked Permanent Waves was gone.

“There’s not much here. Gonna be a short video.” Dan had stopped filming and stood next to Geddy, just looking at the blank walls. “Might put it on the FilmIt channel with the shorter things.”

Geddy kicked at some glass. Le Studio would be relegated to a three minute video. It would be better than nothing, but… Maybe it was only Geddy’s memories making it more important than it was. 

“I usually like to film the places with more visible history, like that pilot’s house in New Jersey.” Dan was obviously off camera and trying to talk to Geddy. “When they’re stripped out like this, or heavily vandalized there’s not much of a story left to tell.”

‘That’s fucking depressing,’ Geddy thought to himself, knowing more that went on inside these walls than most.

“It would probably do better as an interview type of shoot. Maybe I can find some old footage on YouTube and mix in what it used to look like here with how it is now. Show off the contrasts.” Geddy got the impression Dan was feeling him out for footage to bulk out his editing. Sadly, he didn’t have any of that. Dan would have to talk to Neil.

Dan held his camera again, turning on the light and setting up another shot of Geddy. There was a shift in his demeanor when he knew he was filming. “So, this was like your Abbey Road?”

What a lame comparison. “Hardly. I mean, Toronto Sound was so limited and Le Studio was so far ahead of its time, but it doesn’t at all compare to Abbey Road.” It obviously wasn’t the answer Dan was looking for and the bright fill light was turned off. 

“You said this was residential. Where did you live?” Will had shouldered his camera, photographed out. 

“Cottage is across the lake. Used to canoe over every morning and back when we finished.”

“Whoa,” Will smiled. “Better than a freeway.”

Geddy smirked again. Sex in a canoe had been a challenge, but they managed. Only once did they tip over and have to swim to shore, soaked through and having to explain to Neil and a bemused Broon and Robbie.

“Can we check out the cabin? Might be some good footage.”

“The first one burned down.” Will looked interested; Dan clung on to his camera protectively and looked afraid of water. “That was Roy Thomas Baker and Ian Hunter, not us,” he squashed any chance of a new rumor. “I think the second one was sold off and someone lives in it now.”

Dan visibly relaxed, not interested in filming an occupied and upkept property. So no boat rides for Dan. “I think that’s it.” Dan gave the room one last look around and found nothing. “Anything else nearby that might be interesting?”

Maybe it would be better for Geddy to get out of here. The memories of Alex were good, but he could just go home and make new memories. “Saint-Sauvuer is the closest town, but the main strip is pretty well kept with the ski business.” Aside from a few trailer parks there really wasn’t the decay that Dan liked to film. “You’d almost have to go to Montreal, and even in Hochelaga it’s not as bad as Baltimore.”

“Nowhere’s as bad as Baltimore,” Dan chuckled. “I’m gonna try and edit this together tonight. I’ll send you a link when it’s up.”

“We’ll make it look like you weren’t walking around with a boner the whole time.”

Geddy kept a straight face at Will’s inappropriate comment. “That’s awfully nice of you.” Geez, where did Dan get this guy? Maybe it was just the difference in generations.

Dan grabbed Will by the shoulders and pulled him against his side. “What a funny guy.” Geddy remembers saying the same thing once upon a time, about ten feet to the left of where he currently stood.

“I’m gonna head out. You staying a bit?” There was still the muddy hill to climb after getting out of the basement, and the treacherous rotting stairs to navigate before they got back to their cars. 

“Yeah. We’re not far behind you. Gonna shoot some more of the lake then take off.” He released Will from his grip, letting the kid stand on his own.

Geddy looked at the pair of them before leaving, deciding for himself that they were most certainly fucking. “Alright then. See you around.” He turned and left with a waive, leaving Dan and Will alone to make their own memories in the empty shell.

On 11 August 2017 most of Le Studio burned to the ground.


End file.
